Quatre & Otabek (Nov)
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ax_mainQuatre and Otabek converse in the library.
Being in the library was always calming for Quatre. It was quiet, peaceful and never had all that many people in it where one couldn’t hide themselves away in a corner if they wanted to. He slid out a large book of Russian geography and set it down amongst the pile of books he was collecting.
He had five books, the limit was seven.
Otabek had a couple books stacked on top of his laptop and he was looking for a place to sit. As he crossed by Quatre one of the books slipped out of his pile and thumped to the floor. “Excuse me,” he said, going to scoop it up from near Quatre’s feet.
Quatre blinked when he heard the book fall and turned at the soft words, surprise making his eyes widen slightly when he saw Otabek Altin behind him. “Oh. I knew we had one professional skater here, but I didn’t know we had two. Hello.”
Otabek straightened and offered a polite smile. “Hello. Yes, there’s a surplus of us now.”
“We have more than two?” Quatre asked a little shocked, glancing at all the Otabek was carrying. “Do you need help? Where are you trying to go?”
“Only the two of us, but an unexpected number since neither of us are local.” Otabek shrugged and rebalanced his pile. “Just looking for a place to sit. Catching up on my final papers for the semester. Juggling around the season always gets me behind.”
“Oh, I bet.” Quatre stopped himself from reaching for the pile of books to help Otabek, always ask before acting. “I’m just glad I can focus on school for right now, it must be difficult trying to work with so many different things. May I take some of your books?”
“Oh, sure.” The pile was teetering. Otabek could use the hand.
At the permission Quatre quickly moved in to take some of the load from Otabek’s arms. He took four and shifted them in his arms, scooting his own pile of books with his foot so they would be out of the way of anyone else. “Lead the way.”
Otabek spotted a free seat and table and led the way over. He settled his school work down and gave Quatre a small nod. “Thanks.”
Quatre laid the books down in a neat pile, arranging them so that they were all straight and in order before smiling at the skater. “You’re welcome. What classes are you writing papers for?”
They had communications together, but that was all he knew of the boy’s schedule.
“Current events,” Otabek explained. He gestured at the books, clearly older publications. “Doing a comparison between history, how events may seem new but we make the same moves over and over. Similar arguments, similar fear, similar gain. Clearly making more work for myself.”
“Goodness.” Quatre breathed and gave Otabek a sympathetic look. “I do not envy you, my friend. Reading history’s past mistakes and how we don’t learn from them would drive me insane.”
“Fortunately it only has to be 7 pages.”
Quatre huffed a small laugh. “Oh, only?”
He pulled one of the books from Otabek’s pile and leaned through it a bit, history something that he liked to learn, but a lot of it was so dismal. “Congratulations on gold, by the way.”
Otabek smiled, small but genuine. “Thanks.”
Quatre smiled back and looked back at the book. “You’re the one who is able to make silence, right?”
“Yeah, that would be me.”
“How do you do it?” He asked, then realized that was like asking how someone could be double jointed. “I mean, I know because of your mutation, but is it difficult? Do you really have to focus?”
“It depends,” he admitted. “I don’t always notice when it happens. I have to focus to do it intentionally or to turn it off.”
“Huh.” Quatre replied, wondering how it would feel for everything to suddenly go silent. “Was it scary the first time it happened?”
Otabek thought about that. “Honestly... I think I missed the first time. It’s mostly noticeable when people are around. I’ve only done it one place with a crowd before, thank god, but that was pretty horrible.”
“How big was the crowd?” He could imagine how confusing it would be for the sounds to suddenly go out in a large group of people.
“Half dozen people. That’s how I ended up here. Thank god it happened at training, and not at a competition.” And thank goodness the people he was working with didn’t hold grudges. As freaked out as people might have been, no one had used the incident against Otabek. They could have easily hurt his career by kicking up a fuss over the incident.
Quatre gave Otabek an understanding look and set the book he had been leafing through down. “That is good. But you have been able to compete since then, right? So it looks like you are able to control your powers pretty well.”
Another terse nod. Otabek was grimly concerned that his control was a fluke, not a mastery. “So far the only slips were here. Nothing big.”
Quatre smiled reassuringly, the boys face so serious. “Well, that’s good. When focusing are you able to choose how big you want it to be or does it do it’s own thing?”
“It’s generally the room I’m in. Never bigger than that, but I guess it’s subconscious or something since room sizes may vary.”
“So, if you were to try here, could you do just around us or would the whole library get silenced?” Quatre asked, not wanting to be nosy, but he was always more interested in others powers.
He considered. “Maybe not the whole room, if I work at it. Focus on us.”
“Wow.” Quatre smiled and sat down next to Otabek. “Sorry if I’m asking too many questions. It’s just very interesting.”
“I guess.” Otabek wasn’t deeply invested in his power, beyond hoping it didn’t get in the way of skating. “What do you do?” He asked.
“Ah.” Quatre held up one of his gloved hand. “I’m an empath. I can feel others emotions and change them from touch.”
That earned an arched brow. “Huh.” He couldn’t decide if reading or changing was worse. Probably changing. Actually, yes, mostly changing. The first part only sucked for Quatre. “I hope you like people.”
Quatre smiled a little sadly, pulling his hand back down and into his lap. “I do like people and I would never use my powers on anyone unless it was an emergency.”
"Thus the gloves," Otabek gestured. "Do you only feel things from touch also? Sounds like a rough deal for you if not."
Quatre tilted his head a bit in confusion. “You mean, feeling my own feelings? No, I feel those normally without any help of my power.”
Otabek smiled. Sometimes he was bad at communicating, and phrasing things unclearly was a well versed habit. "I mean feeling other people's feelings. If it's all the time, or you have to touch them to get too much information."
“Oh.” Quatre’s smile was back when he saw Otabek’s. “Yes, I have to touch their bare skin with mine in order to know what they are feeling. I sometimes wonder if I worked on it, if I could be able to just sense without touch. But I think that would make a lot of people uncomfortable, so I don’t think I’ll try.”
Otabek nodded. “Less work that way. I’d think you’d want to figure out how to dial it down before turning it up.”
“Dial it back?” Quatre looked down at his gloved hand, the idea of not feeling anything when he touched someone with his bare hand had never really occurred to him before. “I’m...I’m not even sure it that’s doable...how would I even try?”
"Maybe ask the professor? Or whoever helps you with your power training?" Otabek suggested.
Quatre was quiet for a moment as he considered that. Not having to wear his gloves all of the time would be useful, but that mean a long time of training and touching people. Feeling all of their emotions time and time again. “Maybe. I wonder if I could ask the professor to help me figure out how to block others emotions when I don’t want them.”
“Worth a shot.” There was a wry touch to his smile. “But this is coming from a guy that specializes in quiet.”
Quatre’s own gentle smile came out. “Quiet can be a very good thing. I prefer quiet over loud.”
Otabek gestured at the room. "Then I bet I'll see you here."
“Probably.” He gave a nod and then a pat to one of the books. “I’ll let you be so you can work. It was nice meeting you, Otabek.”
"Thank you. You too." Otabek gave one last polite nod before settling down with his schoolwork.
Being in the library was always calming for Quatre. It was quiet, peaceful and never had all that many people in it where one couldn’t hide themselves away in a corner if they wanted to. He slid out a large book of Russian geography and set it down amongst the pile of books he was collecting.
He had five books, the limit was seven.
Otabek had a couple books stacked on top of his laptop and he was looking for a place to sit. As he crossed by Quatre one of the books slipped out of his pile and thumped to the floor. “Excuse me,” he said, going to scoop it up from near Quatre’s feet.
Quatre blinked when he heard the book fall and turned at the soft words, surprise making his eyes widen slightly when he saw Otabek Altin behind him. “Oh. I knew we had one professional skater here, but I didn’t know we had two. Hello.”
Otabek straightened and offered a polite smile. “Hello. Yes, there’s a surplus of us now.”
“We have more than two?” Quatre asked a little shocked, glancing at all the Otabek was carrying. “Do you need help? Where are you trying to go?”
“Only the two of us, but an unexpected number since neither of us are local.” Otabek shrugged and rebalanced his pile. “Just looking for a place to sit. Catching up on my final papers for the semester. Juggling around the season always gets me behind.”
“Oh, I bet.” Quatre stopped himself from reaching for the pile of books to help Otabek, always ask before acting. “I’m just glad I can focus on school for right now, it must be difficult trying to work with so many different things. May I take some of your books?”
“Oh, sure.” The pile was teetering. Otabek could use the hand.
At the permission Quatre quickly moved in to take some of the load from Otabek’s arms. He took four and shifted them in his arms, scooting his own pile of books with his foot so they would be out of the way of anyone else. “Lead the way.”
Otabek spotted a free seat and table and led the way over. He settled his school work down and gave Quatre a small nod. “Thanks.”
Quatre laid the books down in a neat pile, arranging them so that they were all straight and in order before smiling at the skater. “You’re welcome. What classes are you writing papers for?”
They had communications together, but that was all he knew of the boy’s schedule.
“Current events,” Otabek explained. He gestured at the books, clearly older publications. “Doing a comparison between history, how events may seem new but we make the same moves over and over. Similar arguments, similar fear, similar gain. Clearly making more work for myself.”
“Goodness.” Quatre breathed and gave Otabek a sympathetic look. “I do not envy you, my friend. Reading history’s past mistakes and how we don’t learn from them would drive me insane.”
“Fortunately it only has to be 7 pages.”
Quatre huffed a small laugh. “Oh, only?”
He pulled one of the books from Otabek’s pile and leaned through it a bit, history something that he liked to learn, but a lot of it was so dismal. “Congratulations on gold, by the way.”
Otabek smiled, small but genuine. “Thanks.”
Quatre smiled back and looked back at the book. “You’re the one who is able to make silence, right?”
“Yeah, that would be me.”
“How do you do it?” He asked, then realized that was like asking how someone could be double jointed. “I mean, I know because of your mutation, but is it difficult? Do you really have to focus?”
“It depends,” he admitted. “I don’t always notice when it happens. I have to focus to do it intentionally or to turn it off.”
“Huh.” Quatre replied, wondering how it would feel for everything to suddenly go silent. “Was it scary the first time it happened?”
Otabek thought about that. “Honestly... I think I missed the first time. It’s mostly noticeable when people are around. I’ve only done it one place with a crowd before, thank god, but that was pretty horrible.”
“How big was the crowd?” He could imagine how confusing it would be for the sounds to suddenly go out in a large group of people.
“Half dozen people. That’s how I ended up here. Thank god it happened at training, and not at a competition.” And thank goodness the people he was working with didn’t hold grudges. As freaked out as people might have been, no one had used the incident against Otabek. They could have easily hurt his career by kicking up a fuss over the incident.
Quatre gave Otabek an understanding look and set the book he had been leafing through down. “That is good. But you have been able to compete since then, right? So it looks like you are able to control your powers pretty well.”
Another terse nod. Otabek was grimly concerned that his control was a fluke, not a mastery. “So far the only slips were here. Nothing big.”
Quatre smiled reassuringly, the boys face so serious. “Well, that’s good. When focusing are you able to choose how big you want it to be or does it do it’s own thing?”
“It’s generally the room I’m in. Never bigger than that, but I guess it’s subconscious or something since room sizes may vary.”
“So, if you were to try here, could you do just around us or would the whole library get silenced?” Quatre asked, not wanting to be nosy, but he was always more interested in others powers.
He considered. “Maybe not the whole room, if I work at it. Focus on us.”
“Wow.” Quatre smiled and sat down next to Otabek. “Sorry if I’m asking too many questions. It’s just very interesting.”
“I guess.” Otabek wasn’t deeply invested in his power, beyond hoping it didn’t get in the way of skating. “What do you do?” He asked.
“Ah.” Quatre held up one of his gloved hand. “I’m an empath. I can feel others emotions and change them from touch.”
That earned an arched brow. “Huh.” He couldn’t decide if reading or changing was worse. Probably changing. Actually, yes, mostly changing. The first part only sucked for Quatre. “I hope you like people.”
Quatre smiled a little sadly, pulling his hand back down and into his lap. “I do like people and I would never use my powers on anyone unless it was an emergency.”
"Thus the gloves," Otabek gestured. "Do you only feel things from touch also? Sounds like a rough deal for you if not."
Quatre tilted his head a bit in confusion. “You mean, feeling my own feelings? No, I feel those normally without any help of my power.”
Otabek smiled. Sometimes he was bad at communicating, and phrasing things unclearly was a well versed habit. "I mean feeling other people's feelings. If it's all the time, or you have to touch them to get too much information."
“Oh.” Quatre’s smile was back when he saw Otabek’s. “Yes, I have to touch their bare skin with mine in order to know what they are feeling. I sometimes wonder if I worked on it, if I could be able to just sense without touch. But I think that would make a lot of people uncomfortable, so I don’t think I’ll try.”
Otabek nodded. “Less work that way. I’d think you’d want to figure out how to dial it down before turning it up.”
“Dial it back?” Quatre looked down at his gloved hand, the idea of not feeling anything when he touched someone with his bare hand had never really occurred to him before. “I’m...I’m not even sure it that’s doable...how would I even try?”
"Maybe ask the professor? Or whoever helps you with your power training?" Otabek suggested.
Quatre was quiet for a moment as he considered that. Not having to wear his gloves all of the time would be useful, but that mean a long time of training and touching people. Feeling all of their emotions time and time again. “Maybe. I wonder if I could ask the professor to help me figure out how to block others emotions when I don’t want them.”
“Worth a shot.” There was a wry touch to his smile. “But this is coming from a guy that specializes in quiet.”
Quatre’s own gentle smile came out. “Quiet can be a very good thing. I prefer quiet over loud.”
Otabek gestured at the room. "Then I bet I'll see you here."
“Probably.” He gave a nod and then a pat to one of the books. “I’ll let you be so you can work. It was nice meeting you, Otabek.”
"Thank you. You too." Otabek gave one last polite nod before settling down with his schoolwork.
